A nonpartisan government study says repealing President Barack Obama’s signature health care law would modestly increase the budget deficit and the number of uninsured Americans would rise by more than 20 million. The report from the Congressional Budget Office comes ahead of a highly anticipated Supreme Court ruling that could have a major impact on the Affordable Care Act, nullifying health insurance subsidies for some 6 million people in more than 30 states. The budget analysts said that would add a host of new uncertainties to their estimates. Republicans now in control of both chambers of Congress say they are...

The Congressional Budget Office says legislation the House will pass this week to ban abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy would lead to an increase in the budget deficit of at least $235 million over the next decade, and perhaps as much as half a billion dollars. The CBO released a report Tuesday for the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, H.R. 36, which the House will consider on Thursday. That bill aims to ban abortions after 20 weeks, and is based on evidence that a fetus can feel pain once it reaches that age. CBO’s report assumes that if the...

WASHINGTON - Republicans have a wealth of political issues that will dominate the 2014 midterm election races and determine their outcome. The national news media has done its best to try to bury these issues, play them down or sugar coat them, but the American people know better. They have persistently put these issues at or near the top of every voter poll in the last six years of Barack Obama's scandal-ridden, trouble-plagued administration. It's hard to break through and overcome the power of the Washington news media that has worked hard to cover up the Obama White House's blunders....

The Congressional Budget Office reported this week that the budget deficit is falling rapidly from its trillion-dollar-plus Rocky Mountain highs during Barack Obama’s first term. I estimate that the deficit will likely be $400 billion or lower this fiscal year, and that is a near $1 trillion improvement over four years. As a share of GDP, federal deficits have tumbled from nearly 10 percent to just under 3 percent. The question is, Why the progress? The main factor has been falling government spending, which is a positive force for the economy. And the reason government spending is falling is that...

<p>WASHINGTON—The U.S. government is posting the strongest revenue since before the recession, buoyed by higher tax rates and a slowly improving economy, leaving the federal budget on track for its narrowest deficit in five years.</p>
<p>Revenue from October to July, the first 10 months of the government's fiscal year, totaled $2.287 trillion, the Treasury Department said Monday. That is up about 14% from a year earlier and about 8.1% from the first 10 months of 2007, the next highest year for revenue. Meanwhile, government spending is down slightly, largely due to across-the-board cuts called the sequester that went into effect March 1.</p>

After years of trillion-dollar annual deficits, federal red ink is lessening – and pace of the decline now looks much quicker than forecasters thought it would be. That’s good news for American taxpayers worried about a pileup of debt – and the risk that would pose for their pocketbooks in the future. The debt problem isn’t solved, but this is progress. Here are the new numbers: The federal budget deficit will shrink this year to $642 billion, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office now estimates. Just three months ago, the CBO was forecasting a deficit of $845 billion for the 2013...

For the first time since 2007 – before the recession – the US Treasury is planning to make a down payment on the federal debt. The budget deficit has been shrinking more than expected. Thanks to government spending cuts, and higher tax receipts The Treasury says it expects to pay off $35 billion of debt in the second quarter. That compares to an earlier forecast that it would have to borrow $103 billion. Usually this time of year is the best for government cash flow because annual tax returns flood into the Treasury in April. But the return to at...

The annual deficit has fallen 32% over the first seven months of this fiscal year compared with same period last year, according to Congressional Budget Office figures released Tuesday. A major reason: A big jump in tax revenue. Tax collections rose by $220 billion -- or 16% -- between the start of the fiscal year on Oct. 1 through April 30. Individual and payroll taxes accounted for $184 billion of that increase. The tax haul rose sharply primarily because wages and salaries were higher, the payroll tax cut of the past two years expired on Jan. 1 and the fiscal...

“We need a balanced approach.” How many times have you heard that poll-tested line from Obama? Unfortunately, the President’s rhetoric doesn’t match his actions. Only four weeks after raising taxes on the majority of Americans, the President wants to raise taxes again. Predictably, his definition of balance means more taxes right now in exchange for soaring rhetoric about cutting spending that is backed only by accounting gimmicks and broken promises. No issue is a greater threat to our economic prosperity than government overspending – a lopsided imbalance that has led to over $146,000 in debt per American taxpayer. In the...

WASHINGTON - House Republican leaders seized the high ground this week in the furious battle to curb federal spending, forcing Senate Democrats to produce their first budget in nearly four years. It was a political high wire act, but House Speaker John Boehner pulled it off without a hitch. In one master stroke, he reunited most of his rebellious Republicans behind his budget strategy, and divided the Democrats. When the smoke cleared in the latest budgetary skirmish Wednesday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who has dictatorially ignored previous House budgets, agreed to accept the GOP's limited debt ceiling suspension as...

The National Labor Relations Board’s (NLRB) Summary of Operations for fiscal year 2012, released last week, shows an agency that is significantly over-funded. In 2010, the Obama Administration increased the agency’s budget even though it previously operated with a fiscal year-end surplus. Now, the operating report reveals that the agency’s business continues to erode with the decline of unionization in the private sector making its increased appropriation even more unnecessary than it was in 2010. According to the report, issued by Acting General Counsel Lafe Solomon, total case intake decreased by three percent; unfair labor practice case intake decreased by...

"You don't have to be a deficit hawk to be disturbed by the growing gap between revenues and expenses," said Sen. Barack Obama during a Nov. 3, 2005, debate on the Senate floor. At the time, Obama had been a senator for less than a year and the federal budget deficit was in fact shrinking, from $248 billion in fiscal 2006 to $160 billion in fiscal 2007. Still, Obama seemed deeply concerned about the deficit, and he appeared to believe it when he said the only way to close the shortfalls was to force Congress to pay for what it...

A new report from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis reminds Americans that, contrary to the narrative that huge deficits and debt are merely a recent product of the Great Recession, the problem began over forty years ago. Daniel Thornton, the St. Louis Fed's Vice President and economic adviser, finds what conservatives have been saying all along is true: it's steadily increasing government spending, not a lack of tax revenues, that's causing all of this. [A]fter 1970, both revenues and expenditures increased on average relative to the previous two decades; however, revenue increased marginally while expenditures increased significantly... on...

WASHINGTON -- President Obama thinks the debate over raising the $16.4 trillion debt ceiling isn't the place or the time to be discussing runaway spending. Essentially, that was his message Monday in a full-court press assault on Republicans in Congress for having the temerity to suggest that before we raise the debt ceiling by another $2 trillion, maybe we should begin discussing how to reduce spending, how to shrink our monstrous national debt and how the government must begin living within its means. But with the government debt soaring toward nearly $19 trillion -- and likely to skyrocket to $25...

Republicans, and many Democrats, are upset by the prospect of so-called sequestration cuts to the nation's defense budget. Pentagon chief Leon Panetta is so alarmed that the day before the Senate took up what became the "fiscal cliff" agreement, he called a key Republican lawmaker, Sen. Lindsey Graham, to express deep concern that the cuts might go into effect. As it turned out, Congress put them off for two months. Sequestration would force the government to reduce discretionary spending by about $1.2 trillion over the next decade. Roughly half of that, or $600 billion, would come from defense --...

Thomas Jefferson warned us, "I, however, place economy among the first and most important Republican virtues, and public debt as the greatest of dangers to be feared. To preserve our independence, we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt... I am for a government rigorously frugal and simple." Nothing we face compares to the challenge our founding fathers faced in winning independence and forming a more perfect union, but reclaiming a "frugal and simple" government will take far more than replaying another version of Washington's "fiscal cliff" charade. Congress first put a limit on federal debt during...

We wrote for the weekend (see our column Sunday morning when it goes up here) that Gov. Jerry Brown is a bad guesser. The ink wasn’t even dry yet – in fact the Sunday paper hasn’t even been printed yet – and we learn that Brown guessed wrong again. Back in January Brown guessed that the state budget would be $9.2 billion in the red. Wrong. Monday Brown revised his estimate. Then he said it would be $15.7 billion in the red. Wrong. Today the independent Legislative Analyst affirmed that Jerry’s wrong again. It will be $17 billion plus some...

The huge tax increases proposed by Gov. Jerry Brown are becoming much less popular as voters learn more about them. At the rate of decline in popularity over just the past two months, there may be no one left in California who will vote for the higher taxes by the time November balloting arrives, save, of course, Mr. Brown and the principal beneficiaries, public employee union members to whom he panders. Meanwhile, an analysis by the state Board of Equalization, which handles state business taxes, has weighed the impact of the governor's higher taxes and found them quite costly. The...

Thanks to an explosion of Keynesian deficit spending around the world, an explosion that has predictably correlated with weak economic output, major ink is being spilled about the economic crack-up unfolding before our eyes. To state the obvious, wasteful, capital destroying governments can only spend what they first extract from the private sector. SNIP The first lie we're regularly told about budget deficits. Supposedly the latter are bad, but looked at through a basic economic prism, would we prefer a balanced budget in the U.S. that coincides with $3 trillion in annual spending, or an annual budget deficit of $500...

Despite bipartisan promises to cut spending after the 2010 elections, Washington politicians are still voting to make the government even bigger and more expensive than ever. Don’t believe me? Even though the federal government is nearly $15 trillion in debt, it’s spending at record-high levels. Federal spending has gone up 5 percent in the first nine months of this year alone. Just last week, Democrats and Republicans in the Senate passed three new spending bills to increase 2012 funding above 2011 funding levels. The bills will increase spending for the Department of Agriculture by $6.4 billion; for the Departments of...

In his nightly note, BTIG's Dan Greenhaus digs into the "Buffett Tax" and some math on the deficit. First he notes that over the next 10 years, deficits are estimated at around $6 trillion. Then he looks at what socking it to the rich actually gets us. Conclusions. It doesn't get us THAT far towards balancing the budget, but it's not nothing. The below table breaks down actual tax return data from the IRS from 2009, showing how many returns were filed at each income level, what their taxable income was, what tax they paid and what percentage of the...

In a 45 to 52 vote on Thursday night, the Senate failed to advance a resolution that would have disapproved of a pending $500 billion increase in the nation's debt ceiling. Under the debt-ceiling agreement reached in early August, the Obama administration was authorized to immediately raise the debt ceiling by $400 billion. Another $500 billion increase was authorized this month, although that could have been blocked if both the House and Senate approved resolutions expressing disapproval. Earlier in the day Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) threatened to hold the Senate open for up to ten hours on Friday...

Santa Cruz, Calif.- The Santa Cruz County Office of Education and Migrant Head Start program says they are still accepting more kids in their free childcare program. It's not your typical babysitter, the childcare providers are certified teachers who offer a learning environment. Meals and diapers are provided. To qualify families must have moved within the last 24 months and over 50% of their income must come from agriculture work. If you're interested contact Sonia Cervantes, Migrant Head Start Specialist at (831) 466-5852.

Media reports today are that a target of $2.4 trillion in deficit reductions is being negotiated to match an increase in the debt ceiling of $2.4 trillion to get the government funded into early 2013. The 18 months of borrowing from August 2011 through February 2013 works out to an annual rate of $1.6 trillion. That means the current deal allows for more deficit spending than FY 2011 ($1.5 trillion) and much more than the White House proposed earlier this year for FY 2012 ($1.1 trillion).The proposed deficit reductions are spread out over the next ten years and appears to...

The budget deficit for the month of May came in at $57.6 billion, way better than last year's $135.9 billion for the same period. It also came in better than expected for this year, about $1.4 billion less than expectations, which were for a $59 billion deficit. The improvement comes down to an increase in tax revenue, year-over-year, and the absence of bailout spending from last year.

Imagine you’re irresponsible. Now imagine you’re the people in charge of California’s government budget. But I repeat myself. Imagine you have run up your credit card and borrowed beyond what’s reasonable. Imagine now that you have too little money because you have a spending problem. Then imagine you get a windfall bundle of cash. What would you do? Pay some outstanding bills? Pay down your credit card? Nah. You’d spend it. . .

Lori Montgomery, a normally sensible budget reporter at the Washington Post, has written a confused and unbalanced article that seemingly blames the Bush tax cuts for the current budget woes and thus leads readers to the wrong solutions for the impending debt meltdown. The key indictment: The biggest culprit, by far, has been an erosion of tax revenue triggered largely by two recessions and multiple rounds of tax cuts. Together, the economy and the tax bills enacted under former president George W. Bush, and to a lesser extent by President Obama, wiped out $6.3 trillion in anticipated revenue. Thatâ€™s nearly...

Some conservatives are getting nervous about the polls on Medicare. Apparently about 80 percent of Americans are opposed to cuts in Medicare. Mona Charen, for one, is steeling herself for the inevitable Mediscare campaign from the Democrats. The Democrats have always known how to scare the pants off grannie at any suggestion of cuts to Medicare and Social Security. For years and years, Republicans didn't know how to respond to their Mediscare. But now things are different. These days the American people are good and scared about debts and deficits. So it's now possible to scare the pants off...

WASHINGTON — A new budget estimate released Wednesday shows that the spending bill negotiated between President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner would produce less than 1 percent of the $38 billion in claimed savings by the end of this budget year. The Congressional Budget Office estimate shows that compared with current spending rates the spending bill due for a House vote Thursday would pare just $352 million from the deficit through Sept. 30. About $8 billion in cuts to domestic programs and foreign aid are offset by nearly equal increases in defense spending.

We expected Barack Obama to offer little new in his speech on the budget; Iâ€™m not sure we expected as much repetition as we got. Bookended by rhetoric on the kind of America in which he wanted to live, Obama gave a four-step plan to confront the massive and crippling deficits ahead of us that entirely relies on the kind of proposals heâ€™s already aired in the past. He gave little in the way of specifics, and made no mention at all of his deficit commission again. Instead of offering specifics on cuts, Obama instead offered specifics on â€¦ more...

Obama’s budget credibility took a hit from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office this month, when CBO said the administration’s 2012 budget proposal will not deliver the deficit improvement in the coming decade that it promised. CBO’s analysis said deficits through 2021 would total $2.3 trillion more than those projected in the budget document prepared by the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB). Instead of falling to 3 percent of GDP by 2017 and remaining near that level through 2021, CBO analysts say the deficit would never go below 4.1 percent of GDP and would begin to rise toward...

California Republicans, reduced to cheering and jeering from the sidelines because of their all-but-impotent political clout these days, still are “negotiating” over budget matters and other matters fiscal with Gov. Jerry Brown. He’s complained for a while that the Republicans hadn’t said what it is they want out of this ongoing drama. Now he knows. And now he’s complaining about that. . .

Alabama is the only state in the union which will not have a budget deficit in 2012. Seven other states have either not reported data or their budget deficit is “not applicable”. The current budget deficit for the fifty (not fifty-seven) states and the District of Columbia is now $125 billion. If each affected state was able to balance their budget using state worker reductions, this would amount to 2.5 million people out of work starting July 1st , 2011. This assumes an average salary of $50,000 per worker. If we assume an average salary of $40,000, this would increase...

It sounds so, well, fair on the face of it. Gov. Jerry Brown says it’s only right to fix the state budget deficit with equal amounts of reduced spending and increased taxes. Let’s not even consider for now the fact that it would be pretty dumb to give more tax money to people who have misspent and over-spent and otherwise wasted what they’ve already taken from taxpayers. Let’s just deal with the governor’s concept of fairness. . . . . . But let’s compare Brown’s actual “cuts” with the actual increased taxes Californians would pay, if the governor got his...

The Bay Area Council, a business group made up of 275 of the San Francisco area’s largest firms, today called on the state legislature to find a way to work with Governor Jerry Brown, and close the state’s $26.6 billion budget deficit. In a letter faxed to each member of the Senate and Assembly in Sacramento, the group urged members to “embrace the spirit of compromise.” The Council last week endorsed Brown’s plan after a meeting between Brown and the group’s executive committee (see story). Jim Wunderman, President and CEO of the Council, said at the time that not everything...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The government posted a record monthly budget deficit of $222.5 billion in February as spending growth outstripped revenue gains that were crimped by tax cuts enacted late last year, the Treasury Department reported on Thursday. The budget gap for February -- typically a large deficit month -- beat the previous record of $220.91 billion set in February 2010. But it came in under the consensus forecast of a $227.5 billion gap from analysts polled by Reuters.

Gov. Jerry Brown, asked Friday by a reporter in San Francisco about The Wall Street Journal’s report that he has met quietly with California Republicans who may support his budget plan, said he doesn’t read the Journal and declined to confirm any Republicans he is talking with privately. “I’m not going to blow their cover,” he said. Then he playfully mentioned the biblical story of Nicodemus, a Pharisee who is said to have visited Jesus in the middle of the night to avoid raising eyebrows among his colleagues. The governor compared the New Testament tale to his secret discussions with...

If Congressional Republicans need a little spine-stiffener in the budget battle, Rasmussen provides just the tonic. This poll question differs from the earlier survey by The Hill on the question of a government shutdown. Rather than focus on blame, Rasmussen instead asked about priorities in the debate over spending, and clearly the priority of the majority of likely voters isnâ€™t continued government operations: A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just 33% of Likely U.S. Voters would rather have Congress avoid a government shutdown by authorizing spending at the same levels as last year. Fifty-eight percent (58%) says...

In Madison, Wis., thousands of public employees and their supporters have gathered to protest a plan by Gov. Scott Walker (R) and Republican legislators that would strip them of their collective bargaining rights. Some Democratic lawmakers have left the state, depriving the legislature of the quorum necessary to pass the plan.

We all know by now that Meredith is a witch: an unpatriotic, racist witch, who eats kittens for breakfast, who deserves to be grilled by Joe McCarthy's exhumated corpse for telling communist truths, pardon, lies (just a Freudian slip dear Department of Central Planning and Internet supervision), and who will soon be accused of having unprotected (yet arguably consensual) sex with a Swedish man. But just in case she is on to something, here comes the president's plan to bail out the (otherwise perfectly solvent and all, we promise) states. The NYT reports that "President Obama is proposing to ride...

Letâ€™s look on the bright side: itâ€™s another first for the Obama administration! Better yet, itâ€™s the last accomplishment of the Democratic Congress, which proved so inept on budgeting that they couldnâ€™t actually pass the FY2011 plan with large majorities in both chambers and a friendly President in the White House. The Washington Post reports that the CBO blames this in part on the â€śtax cutsâ€ť in the lame-duck agreement, but somehow glosses over the spending increases over the last four years: The weak economy and fresh tax cuts approved last month will help drive the federal budget deficit to...

The New Jersey Supreme Court appointed a judge to gather more evidence to help it decide whether Governor Chris Christie unlawfully cut $1 billion in school aid during a budget crisis. Superior Court Judge Peter Doyne will hold a hearing to gather facts and make conclusions of law on whether the cutbacks violated a funding formula for students in the poorest districts, the court ruled today.

If Republicans want to keep power, they are going to have to show the courage to make some very, very tough decisions. Although the polls are still in flux, it looks increasingly likely that Republicans will win a big victory next Tuesday. But that doesn’t mean that Americans have fallen in love with them. In fact, even as voters prepare to put Republicans in charge of the House and possibly even the Senate, polls show the Republican party to be only slightly more popular than used-car salesmen. A recent Pew poll showed that only 24 percent of voters approve of...

The top issues on the minds of Americans include the economy, jobs, “dissatisfaction” with government, the federal budget deficit, health care and immigration... Based on polls and my experience, a majority of women fear our children will grow up to find a world with fewer opportunities — and where 10 percent unemployment is the norm. We fear that when our sons and daughters start working, most of their paychecks will be consumed by taxes used to pay the debts we incurred. The women with whom I’ve spoken are outraged at how government recklessly spends our money. We care when government...

The U.S. government spent itself deeper into the red last month, paying nearly $20 billion in interest on debt and an additional $9.8 billion to help unemployed Americans. Federal spending eclipsed revenue for the 22nd straight time, the Treasury Department said Wednesday. The $165.04 billion deficit, while a bit smaller than than the $169.5 billion shortfall expected by economists polled by Dow Jones Newswires, was the second highest for the month on record. The highest was $ 180.68 billion in July 2009. SNIP

White House budget chief Peter Orszag said on Wednesday it would be "foolish" to cut the U.S. deficit while economic growth was still frail, but it would be equally foolish not to significantly curb the deficit by 2015. Orszag told an audience at The Brookings Institution, a Washington think-tank, that failing to take real steps toward closing the record U.S. budget gap would do as much harm to the economy has choking off fiscal stimulus now. It was his last public speech before stepping down as head of the White House Office of Management and Budget on Friday. SNIP The...

Man, I miss the fiscal discipline of the Bush era!Gulp. I never expected to write those words. The Bush-era Republicans were out-of-control big spenders, fiending for appropriations, handing out largesse, creating giant new health-care entitlements here, building nations there, all with a devil-may-care attitude about where the money would come from. They were all carrot and no stick, cutting taxes but not doing a thing about spending.And then: A mid-year budget review by the Obama administration forecasts the deficit will be $1.47 trillion this year and $1.42 trillion next year as the U.S. struggles to recover from the recession. This...

Democrats have been running Congress for nearly four years, and President Obama has been at the White House for 18 months, so it's not too soon to ask: How's that working out? One devastating scorecard came out Friday from the White House, in the form of its own semi-annual budget review. The message: Tax revenues are smaller, spending is greater, and the deficits are thus larger than the White House has been saying. No wonder it dumped the news on the eve of a sweltering mid-July weekend. Mr. Obama inherited a recession, so let's give him a pass on the...

PHOTO CAPTION: "Correspondents say the deal is part of Washington's attempts to counter anti-US sentiment in Pakistan" SNIPPET: "US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has announced aid projects worth $7.5bn (Ł5bn) for Pakistan at the start of talks in the capital Islamabad. The package, agreed by Congress last year, is part of Washington's attempts to counter anti-American sentiment in the country, correspondents say. The five-year deal includes projects for two hydro-electric dams and renewable energy sources."